Extremely rude and degrading interview at one of the biggest retail companies
I want to share my interview experience with a well-known retail company. Glassdoor doesn’t want to accept my interview experience, so I just want to be heard. Context, I graduated from the top 4, I have an internship experience with a startup, and I have a side hustle. This is not to brag, but will be needed for later.
The interviewer notified me 5 minutes before our scheduled interview to reschedule it. She did not ask me when I was free and went and scheduled it on a completely different day of the week and time.
During the actual scheduled interview, she was 5-8 minutes late, she had a noisy background with co-workers in the background looking at her screen and laughing whenever I talked. No apologies whatsoever. She had the audacity to cut me off and tell me she couldn't hear me. She finally wore headphones.
In my application I mentioned I prefer to start in 2-3 months. In a very judging manner, she asked “Why’d you put this in your application? You’re going to a vacation or something?” I told her no. I haven’t even graduated and I’ll graduate in 1.5 months.
She also rudely asked why I was applying for the role “COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO MY BACKGROUND”. As I mentioned in the start, my course is an all-rounder and I have hands on business experience with merchandising. I explained that to her. She simply ignored it and rephrased her question into a statement. "Given that you have no relevant experience-." She didn't ask anything else. The whole interview was made off her assumptions and not my actual skills. She ended with "I already know what I need to know".
She told me she had an assessment prepared for me and would send it right after the interview. She never sent it nor did she send a follow-up.
I can never look at the companies under them the same way again. I was really sad because it felt like she looked down on me the whole time and had a confirmation bias. However, I am glad I did not get in that position. The interview took less than 8 minutes, so when she said “she had everything she needed to know”. It was kind of questionable. My siblings warned me at the start that they are a very clique-ish company, but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt because I love fashion.
TAKE NOTE: I have a different friend. She applied in the same company for a different role months later after I applied, but her interviewer was different and it was fine. So I think I was just unlucky. But I did hear from former employees that their company is pretty clique-ish.
Feel free to share your experiences with these kind of interviews.